kabbro wrote:
One question, if I made a new routine where I was sure to turn on the hot water faucet just as the water gets hot so as to relieve the pressure that's built up, do you think that would prevent leaks (lazy man's solution if I have trouble finding the leak in the "rat's nest")?
Likely not for too long. The general trend is for leaks to get worse over time, not better. Maybe now that you have a way of reproducing it you can put some paper towels or something around the pipes and see more precisely where it's coming from.
If the leak coincides with a lot of water usage, it might also be the pipework sweating rather than actually leaking (i.e. condensation on the outside of the pipes). This is particularly true if the incoming water is cold and the interior air is moist. That it coincides with the water heater heating water rather than with water usage would seem to invalidate this idea, though.
